Girl Scout cookie program teaches financial literacy

Starting Jan. 11, local Girl Scout troops will be participating in the annual Girl Scout Cookie Program, which the group calls "the nation's leading financial literacy and entrepreneurial program for girls."

Since she was in kindergarten, Ashleigh Peterson has known the importance of customer service. Those skills have helped Ashleigh — now 15 and attending Warwick High School in Newport News — to be the top seller of Girl Scout cookies in the Hampton Roads area for the past four years.

She's hoping to continue the trend when the next sales campaign begins on Jan. 11.

"The first day she spends a couple of hours on the phone calling customers, just trying to get ahold of everybody," said Ashleigh's mother, Yvonne Smith, 42.

Ashleigh and her mother have maintained a list of everyone who has bought cookies from her since she started the program. Those customers form the foundation of every new sales campaign.

"Then, on the weekends, we're out all day Saturday and Sunday for a few months," Smith said.

Last year Ashleigh sold nearly 3,500 boxes of the trademark Samoas, Thin Mints, Trefoils and other cookies. Her sales prowess over the years has earned her a few incentives, including two iPad tablets.

Smith said she believes her daughter will study business in college because of her experiences in the program. "She has a knack for it," Smith said.

There's a good chance that you will see Ashleigh or another Girl Scout in the upcoming months.

More than 16,000 girls participate in the local Girl Scouts of the Colonial Coast. There also are more than 6,000 adult volunteers. Combined, they will donate more than 10,000 boxes of cookies to military service members this year through the USO and sell more than a million boxes to friends, family and supporters.

"Locally our council sold about 1.6 million boxes of cookies this past year," said Marcy Germanotta, a spokeswoman for Girl Scouts of Colonial Coast.

Mei Stukes, whose daughter Gabbi, 14, participates in the program, said she's pleased with the life-long lessons that the girls learn. "It teaches them goal-setting and money management and definitely how to interact with people when they're dealing with sales," she said.

"It's a little fun going through the neighborhood and meeting all of my neighbors. Counting money helps me with math," said Gabbi, who is a student at Bethel High School in Hampton.